AMD’s best processor for gaming is right around the corner. Through various leaked benchmarks, we’ve already learned that it might disappoint, and today’s leak only serves to confirm that. According to leaked AMD data, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D may offer a subtle improvement in gaming — although it’ll still be better than what most of the Zen 5 lineup has been able to provide.
VideoCardz was able to obtain what appears to be an official marketing description of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The blurb reveals things like the predicted improvement in instructions per cycle (IPC), gaming, and multi-threaded workloads. It looks like the real deal, but as with any other leak, it’s important to remember that we’ll only learn the full story once we test the CPU ourselves.
According to the leaked blurb, AMD estimates that the 9800X3D will be up to 8% faster in games. Although AMD refers to this as a “strong generational boost,” many expected something better — something more along the lines of the uplift we’ve seen from the 5800X3D to the 7800X3D.
In our own testing, the 7800X3D was up to 26% faster in some games. On average, most reviewers put it at anywhere between 13% to 25% faster, depending on the testing suite. If AMD’s own estimates predict that the 9800X3D will only win out by 8%, I’m not optimistic about reviewers being able to squeeze a lot more performance out of the chip.
The multi-threaded performance is looking a little better, with a 15% boost compared to the 7800X3D. AMD also reveals that the CPU will support up to DDR5-6000, but the memory overclocking support goes far beyond that, all the way up to DDR5-8000 and above.
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D will work with most AM5 coolers and with all AM5 motherboards, including the latest X870E and X870 boards. The specs are no surprise, given it has eight cores and 16 threads, although the maximum boost clock is lower than some may have expected, maxing out at 5.2GHz. However, leaked benchmarks showed the CPU running up to 5.7GHz, so this could be wrong. I’m more inclined to believe that the benchmarks were inaccurate, though.
Although AMD has yet to confirm that the CPU that’s being released on November 7 is the 9800X3D, every single leak points to it being the first to launch. Even if it’ll end up being a bit of a disappointment, it might still sell well due to the fact that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is out of stock pretty much everywhere.
